Child sex abuse victim begs Elon Musk to remove links to her images

A sufferer of kid sexual abuse has begged Elon Musk to cease hyperlinks providing pictures of her abuse being posted on his social media platform X.

“Listening to that my abuse – and the abuse of so many others – continues to be being circulated and commodified right here is infuriating,” says “Zora” (not her actual title) who lives in america and was first abused greater than 20 years in the past.

“Each time somebody sells or shares little one abuse materials, they straight gasoline the unique, horrific abuse.”

X says it has “zero tolerance for little one sexual abuse materials” and tackling those that exploit kids stays “a prime precedence”.

The BBC discovered pictures of Zora whereas investigating the worldwide commerce of kid intercourse abuse materials, estimated to be price billions of {dollars} by Childlight, the World Baby Security Institute.

The fabric was amongst a cache of hundreds of comparable pictures and movies being supplied on the market on an X account. We obtained involved with the dealer via the messaging app Telegram, and this led us to a checking account linked to an individual in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Zora was first abused by a member of the family. A set of pictures of her abuse have develop into notorious amongst paedophiles who accumulate and commerce such content material. Many different victims face the identical state of affairs, as pictures of abuse proceed to flow into in the present day.

Zora is angered the commerce continues to at the present time.

“My physique shouldn’t be a commodity. It by no means has been, and it by no means will probably be,” she says.

“Those that distribute this materials aren’t passive bystanders, they’re complicit perpetrators.”

Photos of Zora’s abuse have been initially solely obtainable on the so-called darkish net, however she now has to stay with the truth that hyperlinks are being brazenly promoted on X.

Social media platforms try to rid their platforms of unlawful materials, however the scale of the issue is big.

Final yr the US Nationwide Middle for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters (NCMEC), obtained greater than 20 million necessary stories from tech corporations about incidents of kid sexual abuse materials (CSAM) – unlawful pictures and movies on their platforms.

NCMEC makes an attempt to establish victims and perpetrators, the organisation then contacts legislation enforcement.

We approached “hacktivist” group Nameless, whose members try to fight the commerce in little one abuse pictures on X. One in every of them informed us the state of affairs was as unhealthy as ever.

They tipped us off a couple of single account on X. It used a photograph of the top and shoulders of an actual little one as its avatar. There was nothing obscene about it.

However the phrases and emojis within the account’s bio made it clear the proprietor was promoting little one sexual abuse materials and there was a hyperlink to an account on the messaging app Telegram.

The dealer seemed to be primarily based in Indonesia and was providing “VIP packages”, collections of pictures and video recordsdata of abuse on the market to paedophiles all over the world.

The Nameless activist had been working to report this dealer’s a number of accounts on X, so that they could possibly be eliminated by the platform’s moderation techniques. However every time one account was eliminated, he informed us, one other new one would substitute it.

The dealer appeared to have been overseeing greater than 100 almost-identical accounts. The activist informed us that when he had contacted the dealer straight utilizing Telegram, the dealer had replied saying he had hundreds of movies and pictures on the market.

“I’ve child. Children younger 7-12”, he wrote in messages to the activist seen by the BBC. He additionally defined that a few of the content material confirmed little one rape.

We obtained in contact with the dealer ourselves.

He offered hyperlinks to samples of fabric, which we didn’t open or view. As a substitute, we contacted specialists from the Canadian Centre for Baby Safety (CCCP) in Winnipeg – who work alongside legislation enforcement and are legally permitted to view such content material.

“The Telegram account was, for lack of a greater time period, a taster pack – primarily a collage of the fabric he had obtainable of all of the completely different victims,” defined Lloyd Richardson, the CCCP’s director of know-how. “Once we checked out all of the completely different pictures within the collages, I might say there have been hundreds.”

Among the many recordsdata have been pictures of Zora.

Her abuser within the US was prosecuted and imprisoned a few years in the past, however not earlier than footage of the abuse had already been shared and bought the world over.

Zora informed us: “I’ve tried over time to beat my previous and never let it decide my future, however perpetrators and stalkers nonetheless discover a method to view this filth.”

As she grew older, stalkers uncovered Zora’s id, contacting and threatening her on-line. She says she feels “bullied over a criminal offense that robbed me of my childhood”.

To establish the dealer promoting pictures of Zora, we posed as a purchaser.

The dealer despatched us his financial institution data and an internet fee account, each had the identical title listed because the account holder.

The Nameless activist had found this title was additionally linked to 2 cash transfers and one other checking account.

We tracked down a person with the identical title as that listed on the accounts, to an handle on the outskirts of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.

A producer working within the metropolis for the BBC World Service went to go to the handle and confronted a person on the premises who, when introduced with the proof, stated he was shocked.

“I do not know something about this,” he stated.

The person confirmed one of many financial institution accounts was his and acknowledged it was created for a single mortgage-related transaction. He stated he had not used the account since and that he would contact his financial institution to search out out what had occurred. He denied data of the opposite checking account or the cash transfers.

We can not know for sure if, and to what extent, he could also be concerned and because of this we aren’t naming him.

The best way Zora’s pictures have been being marketed is a technique utilized by tons of of merchants the world over, our investigation discovered.

Posts on X use completely different hashtags acquainted to paedophiles. Photos that seem on the platform are sometimes taken from recognized little one abuse pictures however will be cropped so they don’t seem to be obscene.

Elon Musk stated eradicating little one sexual abuse materials was his “prime precedence” when he took over X, then generally known as Twitter, in 2022.

Social media platforms normally, not simply X, might do way more to forestall criminals posting repeatedly on this manner, says Lloyd Richardson from the CCCP.

“It is nice that we will ship a takedown discover [to social media platforms], they usually take away the account, however that is the naked minimal.”

The issue is that customers can come again onto the platforms in just a few days with a brand new account, he says.

X informed us it has “zero tolerance” for little one sexual exploitation. “We regularly put money into superior detection to allow us to take swift motion in opposition to content material and accounts that violate our guidelines,” stated a spokesperson.

The platform informed us it really works “intently with the Nationwide Middle for Lacking and Exploited Youngsters (NCMEC) and helps legislation enforcement efforts to prosecute these heinous crimes”.

Telegram stated: “All channels are moderated, and greater than 565,000 teams and channels associated to the unfold of CSAM have been banned thus far in 2025.”

The platform stated it has greater than a thousand moderators engaged on the difficulty.

“Telegram proactively screens public content material throughout the platform and removes objectionable materials earlier than it will possibly attain customers or be reported,” a spokesperson stated.

Once we informed Zora her pictures have been being traded utilizing X, she had this message for the platform’s proprietor, Elon Musk: “Our abuse is being shared, traded, and bought on the app you personal. If you happen to would act with out hesitation to guard your individual kids, I encourage you to do the identical for the remainder of us. The time to behave is now.”

If you’re affected by any of the problems raised on this report, assist and help is obtainable through the BBC Action Line